Don Sunden

Growing up in Ft. Madison, Iowa, Don Sunden wanted to be a cowboy. “We rode horses on my grandpa’s farm; took the buggy to town for groceries, and did all the plowing with horses. We picked all the corn by hand. I lived in the best time period in the world. I’ve seen the horse and buggy and the airplane.” His hometown, Ft. Madison, was the drop off for all the stock going to Madison Square Garden rodeo, hauled in by rail. “I’d go down to the stockyards when I was six until I got out of school. We’d ride the hay wagon and help them feed the stock.” All the western stars would come through – Roy Rogers and Gene Autry – they had their horses there and Don remembers talking to them. Don went into the tool and dye making trade after high school and continued in that trade until he retired. “I did it in high school and then went to a factory and got an apprenticeship. I worked in one factory, then went to a machine shop where we built everything. I was the supervisor there for 16 years and moved around as a supervisor for years.”
He met his wife in Ft. Madison in 1964, the same year he started with the IPRA as a bull rider and a judge. “We met in Pizza Hut and three months later we got married. She rode barrel horses. I never went to a rodeo in my life that she wasn’t there. She went to every one – She ran barrels up until 1970.” They have one daughter, Sherry. Ron started judging in 1964. He likes the IPRA. “It’s a working man’s deal, so most rodeos are on the weekends. I lived 20 miles from H-C Rodeo company, Tonch Hartsell owned it, and we’d go up there and I’d buck out his young bulls for him. I did all my practicing at his place. When I was well I could ride bulls, but when I got hurt, I’d judge.”
He remembers a rodeo in 1969, in Green City Missouri. “I drawed the same bull at all three rodeos, and I bucked off all three times. The last time I got thrown 15 feet above the bull, got kicked in the face, crushed my face, broke every rib, both collar bones, and had internal injuries. I went back to the chutes and spit out all my teeth; I thought it was dirt.” They hauled Don to the hospital and he remembers insisting that they take his jeans off instead of cutting them off. “They were brand new,” he said. “They pumped blood in me and told my wife that I had 24 hours, and call the family. They packed my whole body with ice, and I was in there for two weeks because of the swelling of my head and my body. My face swelled up so big – my wife gave them a picture so they could rebuild my face. I had no feeling in my face for seven years.” As his daughter got bigger, they trained futurity horses. She rode in her first IPRA when she was 7. Don moved to her place two years ago. “She was a school teacher for 19 years and was a chiropractor and started 2 High Dollar Ranch Rehabilitation and Conditioning Center – she’s an animal chiropractor and wanted to do more. We bought a hydrahorse swimming pool and we’ve got infrared lighting, five vibration therapy plates, and a hot walker.”
Don judges about 30 rodeos a year and was selected to be one of the judges at IFR44, along with Ronnie Barnett, Rick Chaffin, and Steve Ratchford. He judges CBRA bull riding, co-sanctioned rodeos and several senior pro rodeos in the states. When he’s not doing judging, he helps his daughter. “We work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week.” The bull riding accident gave Don a different perspective on life. “From that day on every day was a free day – I was supposed to die and I didn’t. I take each day for that day and don’t let anything bother me. Live every day for that day.”